X-Men Origins: Wolverine / Batman: Arkham Asylum

[Tom]

*drool*



*/drool*

[Diarmuid]

1:56 in the second video - "A movie game that, finally, does not suck" (his crappy grammar, not mine).


I live in hope.

[Tom]

Bad grammar makes me [sic].

[Aonghus]

^Rofl.

[Rob]

I was initially sceptical about Arkham Asylum. The reaction to it was basically the same as it has been to every Batman game of the last ten years "Could this be the first genuinely great Batman game?" etc, etc. But there really is cause for excitement, methinks. After all, WB didn't release a Dark Knight tie-in game and instead devoted time and money to this, so they must really want something special.

Don't know much about Wolverine but it hasn't been in production for very long so there's a good chance it's just another stinker. The best and only Wolverine game worth playing is Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

[Diarmuid]

My problem with the Arkham Asylum trailer is that at no point in any of the films does Batman swing over and back between a number of conveniently located Gargoyles in a large room which seems to be being protected in a barely plausible manner. Surely just putting guards on the doors outside would make more sense? Unless they were expecting Batman, in which case you PUT UP SOME FUCKING LIGHTS! It's just too like a game to be a great game, or at least that's how it seems from the video.

[Rob]

Apr 8, 2009 16:48:50 GMT Diarmuid said:

My problem with the Arkham Asylum trailer is that at no point in any of the films does Batman swing over and back between a number of conveniently located Gargoyles in a large room which seems to be being protected in a barely plausible manner. Surely just putting guards on the doors outside would make more sense? Unless they were expecting Batman, in which case you PUT UP SOME smegging LIGHTS! It's just too like a game to be a great game, or at least that's how it seems from the video.

I am completely confused by everything you say here, but I'll take your word for it.

[Tom]

My problem with the Arkham Asylum trailer is that at no point in any of the films does Batman swing over and back between a number of conveniently located Gargoyles in a large room which seems to be being protected in a barely plausible manner

Who said anything about a film?

It's just too like a game to be a great game

I'm too exasperated to form any coherent rebuttal

[Diarmuid]

Allow me to rephrase. The idea that there would just happen to be gargoyles INSIDE a building, and that Batman would spend 10 minutes just swinging from one to another, doesn't seem like something Batman should be doing. If he did that in a film I think we'd all question it, but because it's in a game it's considered fine, which is something that irks me a little.

Also, there's nothing in the room except for guards. What are they guarding, themselves? If they were wandering around an engine room, or somewhere with a load of shipping crates, at least that would be a little plausible, but they didn't even try to give an illusion of credibility.

The takedowns look fun, I'll admit, and I hope it's a good game, I really do. This video makes it look like nothing more than a bog-standard "use some cool moves, clear area, rinse and repeat" game. And that's not in any way a final judgement, which will of course be reserved until I play the game. I'm just not getting excited over a trailer which shows little by way of serious innovation, and rather carries on the traadition of at best very mediocre, and more often than not absolutely dreadful, superhero games.

[Tom]

First, it wasn't really a trailer. It was more a sneak peek of the gameplay. But what it's called isn't that important really.

Second, that wasn't the game itself; it was a challenge mode. It's simply a mode to challenge how fast you can take out a room of guards, and is not connected to, or devoted to furthering, the story at all. I'd say it was probably used to simply illustrate the take-downs, graphics and 'feel' we should expect from the gameplay.

Third, I do agree that gargoyles are a little out of place indoors, but it must be noted that this practice is not unheard of 'IRL' (a large amount of Gothic-style churches have them indoors), and in the case of Arkham, it being an incredibly dark and stylized-for-atmospheric-purposes setting, it's kind of to be expected.

Forth, do you not think that at some stage in breaking up a large group of bad guys, Batman might have to do a bit of forward thinking and planning. I'd go so far as to say that he ALWAYS plans. It not being shown in a film is probably do with it all being silent planning that an audience would find boring. In a game, however, you're the one doing the planning, and it's, as such, a good deal more entertaining.

Finally, you must remember that Arkham is a run-down asylum and while I don't know the ins and outs of the story, it's not entirely beyond the realms of possibility that the antagonists are either insane, psychotically looking to take out 'the Bat', or not too bright (them being henchmen of THE JOKER) and that, after years of poor maintenance, the electrics are largely gone to shitt.

[Rob]

Anyway, they seem to be taking their cue for this game from Grant Morrison's graphic novel 'Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth', which established Arkham as an ancient, hundreds-of-years-old familial castle that was later turned into an Insane Asylum by its owner of the time, Amadeus Arkham, who then went insane himself and was confined to it.

Basically, it makes sense that it would be full of creepy but pointless stuff.

Also, it's frequently established as being run-down and under-funded so it's fairly understandable that the lights would be crap.

EDIT: I've just watched that video for the first time and Diarmuid is fairly justified in what he's saying. After all, that's pretty much what you do for the whole game in Batman Begins; the difference being that everything is pointed out to you by camera lock thingies. Arkham Asylum has promised a 'detective mode' whereby pressing a button, clues are pointed out to you onscreen. The whole thing feels awfully similar to Batman Begins, which was a fairly decent, if disappointing experience.

Also, just a side note, in the scene set in Arkham in Batman Begins (the movie), Batman swoops down from the ceiling and starts picking off the bad guys one by one. He'd have to be swinging from ledges or something near the ceiling, because otherwise he'd have to be flying or teleporting like some sort of demon (what he wants the bad guys to think). So there.

As for the motivations of the henchmen, 1) It's challenge mode and you're not supposed to care and 2) They could have been stationed all over the Asylum to keep watch for Batman, as the Joker knows he's there.

EDIT EDIT: There is nothing remotely exciting about that Wolverine video. It just looks like another brawler where your health bar regenerates all the time and you spend all of the combat waiting to be able to use your 'rage meter' or whatever they're calling it here, so that you can clean the place up for two minutes and then move on to the next stage. That 'lunge' move looks incredibly annoying and is completely contradictory to Wolverine's powers (he doesn't have super-strength or speed, so how is he able to leap that far?!) Seen it all before.

[Tom]

Well it's not like I really care. I mean, I'm hardly likely to go out and actually buy either game. I just figured that they looked awesome.

[Rob]

Batman still has the potential to be great, I think. Also, given that the game is set on Arkham ISLAND and that the Batmobile features extensively in the trailer, I'm hoping that there'll be some driving missions.

[Tom]

There bloody well better be... there's nothing I hate more than a trailer that shows cool things and then doesn't actually deliver them when the game comes out.

[Rob]

The Wolverine game looks better than I thought. Still predictably repetitive, but it looks like a very satisfying experience being able to play as Wolverine and not have your powers 'neutered' (as that review so aptly puts it) by game mechanics that don't want you to be able to slash a guy to pieces.

Can't wait for Batman.

[Diarmuid]

Someone over on Dearwandy was talking about how much fun the wolverine game is, must admit I was a little surprised. Might have to investigate further.

[Rob]

Well...it's been two games and I'll tell you now that these are the two best superhero games ever.

Admittedly, Wolverine is a very straight-forward action game, but it has some fun puzzle elements and it's never not entertaining.

But Arkham Asylum is a visual, visceral, violent masterpiece. Everything about it makes you feel like Batman. And if you don't want to play through the whole game again, you can just play through any of the combat challenges. In this game, you are Batman.